Cecile
is a name for
a tree-trunk that writes
with its roots spread in the earth
Her crafting fingers carve
a thousand things
out of the tree-trunk
Cecile, the goddess of Afro woodcraft
wears the symbol of nature around her neck
Ramrod as a tree-trunk
soft as tissue
wood fire burns
in her will to live
Standing in the middle
of the forest drinking
rainwater living the wealth
of the beauty of the sea she
knows the water resistant longevity
of sturdy Greenheart or Mahogany
Standing tall in the amid a river
a stone tower holding the culture-bridge
Cecile knows the dreams and aspirations
buried in the heart of the wood
In the body of the tree
Cecile lives and carves the
joy and delight of art
the poetry of Kalidas
magical sensuality and
the heady spring of nature
the dead Greenheart lives out
spring for a day
Sensing with her eyes
the shadow of evil in
the human body she brushes it
away with her breath as though
it was some borer eating into
the trunk of the human body
She plants Afro culture within
human hearts so future generations
may craft dreams and meanings
of words on the body of the wood
Like a plain paper
her eyes reach under every palm
so anyone may write her dream
on them and Cecile turn it
into a sample of 'karabasi'
